Mumbai: In a dramatic turnaround of events in Chandrapur on Tuesday, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) ditched the Congress and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), helping the saffron party regain control of the Chandrapur Municipal Corporation (CMC).
BJP leader Sangeeta Khandekar was elected mayor of the civic body while Prashant Danav from Shiv Sena (UBT) was elected deputy mayor. As per the agreement between the two parties, BJP will keep the mayor’s post for 15 months, followed by the Sena (UBT) for another 15 months, said Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sandeep Girhe.
Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar said the Sena (UBT) was insistent on the mayor’s post and chose to extend support to the BJP even after the Congress offered it the deputy mayor and standing committee chairman posts. But Congress insiders said the party lost the mayor’s post due to an intense rift between Wadettiwar and Lok Sabha MP Pratibha Dhanorkar.
In the civic poll held on January 15, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 27 seats in the 66-member civic body, followed by the BJP with 23 seats, Sena (UBT) with six, Bharatiya Shetkari Kamgar Paksha three, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) two, and the BSP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and AIMIM, one seat each; two seats were won by independents.
The fractured mandate prompted a race between the Congress and the BJP to cobble a coalition to get the coveted mayor and deputy mayor posts, with the Shiv Sena (UBT) playing kingmaker.
On Tuesday morning, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut told reporters in Mumbai that his party would not support the BJP in Chandrapur.
“Party chief Uddhav Thackeray has told local leaders in Chandrapur not to join hands with the BJP,” Raut said.
Hours later, however, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sandeep Girhe walked out of last minute negotiations in Chandrapur with Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar, accusing the party of not agreeing to their demand for the mayor’s post despite not being in a position to win the mayoral poll on its own. Girhe then met the BJP leadership and extended support to the party.
Congress insiders said a prolonged cold war between the Wadettiwar and Dhanorkar camps preceded the mayoral nomination. The rift became public when Dhanorkar floated a separate group of 13 corporators, and efforts by the party’s state and central leadership failed to fully restore unity.
During the mayoral election, the two VBA corporators remained absent while the lone AIMIM member stayed neutral, bringing the effective majority mark down to 32. The BJP’s Sangeeta Khandekar, with the help of Sena (UBT) support, defeated Congress candidate Vaishali Mahadole by one vote; while Khandekar bagged 32 votes, Mahadole got 31 votes.
“The BJP will get the mayor’s post for the first 15 months and they will give us the mayor’s post for the next 15 months,” Girhe told reporters. He was in touch with former BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and MLA Kishore Jorgewar regarding the power sharing formula, he said.
Jorgewar said the BJP had agreed to Sena (UBT)’s demand for sharing the mayor’s post.
“As we have more seats, we have got the first opportunity. They will get the mayor and standing committee chairman posts in rotation, apart from the deputy mayor post,” Jorgewar said.
(With inputs from Pradip Kumar Maitra in Nagpur)